Ten days ago, farm-state Congress folks managed to quietly get Obama's farm subsidy changes dropped from the budget passed later that day.  Neither the House nor Senate versions of the bill included the President's proposed limitations on farm subsidies.  The plan would have saved $9.7 billion in the next decade by prohibiting direct payments to farms whose annual gross receipts exceed $500,000.  According to an article in the NYT, "In the House, farm-state lawmakers told the Budget Committee chairman, Representative John M. Spratt Jr., Democrat of South Carolina, that they would not support any budget plan that tinkered with hard-fought agreements they struck in passing last year’s omnibus farm bill."

This country is in desperate need of economic development in rural areas.  Washington State is a perfect example.  Even before the recent economic crises, Washington had the greatest income gap in the United States between its major urban area and its rural communities. If only rural communities were considered, Washington would be very near the top of the states in persistent low employment, poverty and food insecurity.

Luckily, the Stimulus Package passed last month.  The Center for Rural Affairs provides an overview of money that will be provided for rural economic stimulus:

President Obama is making some incredibly good appointments to the DOE.  On March 20, he announced the nomination of  David Sandalow as Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs and Steven Koonin as Undersecretary for Science in the DOE.  A. Siegel, writing at DailyKos, provided some background on the two, along with another person who turned out not to be a nominee.  

Spanish-language auto blogs are reporting that Spain will include a plan to install an electric car infrastructure in several cities and subsidize purchase of a small fleet of electric cars as part of a larger stimulus package.  The southern town of Seville, along with Madrid and Barcelona were chosen as the locations of the first recharging stations.  Sevelle alone will have 75.  An article in Huffington Post adds that the larger plan for Project Movele, s the ambitious new plan will be called, includes introducing EV's, hybrid and plug-in cars.

The governors of Washington, Oregon and California are working together to see if they can install alternative fuels stations at rest stops along I-5.  If implemented, the plan would allow green travelers will be able to recharge or exchange electric vehicle batteries, or obtain compressed natural gas, ethanol, hydrogen or biodiesel.  Jeff Doyle, the director of public-private partnerships at WADOT, says in an article at the Seattle Times, says, "We originally coined it the B.C.-to-Baja green highway.  The three states are trying to find out if we can all march forward together."

Spain generates 11.5% of the country's energy requirements through wind turbines.  Over the past 12 years, Spain has put a lot of energy into developing renewables and is now the third highest generator of wind energy in the world, after the US and Germany.  Percentage-wise, they are way ahead.  The US generates only 1% of its total energy requirements with wind turbines.

Spain aims to meet 30% of it's annual electricity requirements using renewable sources by next year, according to an article in Alternative Energy, a website that compiles information on alternative energy.  They are also working hard on solar energy projects.